Both the director and deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon announced on Wednesday that they are to leave their jobs by early fall. The move is thought be the result of mounting pressure by top Washington officials.

United States DIA Director Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn announced to
Pentagon staff that he is walking away from that role a year
earlier than anticipated.

The news came via a joint statement made by Flynn and the
agency's deputy director, David Shedd, who will also be vacating
his post.

"We are proud of the legacy of sustained superb performance
of the thousands of men and women we have served alongside
throughout these many years," they said.

According to Washington Post reporters Greg Miller and Adam Goldman the director’s
unexpected announcement is the result of increased pressure
coming from the likes of Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper and others who reportedly did not agree with Flynn’s
managerial style.

“His vision in DIA was seen as disruptive; he’s not a guy to
take the agency forward in a coordinated and comprehensive
manner,” one former Pentagon official told the Post of
Flynn, a former colleague.

Flynn, the source said, wanted to push DIA analysts and operators
“up and out of their cubicles into the field to support war
fighters or high-intensity operations.”

Critics of Flynn, the journalists wrote, considered his
management style to have “sowed chaos, setting aggressive
plans for changes without adequate follow-through” within
the agency.

“I’m not sure DIA sees itself as that,” their source
said to the paper.

According to Miller and Goldman, the decision to take Flynn out
of his DIA role comes in the midst of other major changes within
both the US intelligence community and military, both of which
have been shaken up in recent months after former government
contractor Edward Snowden began releasing a trove of sensitive
material to the media.

“I think if I'm concerned about anything, I'm concerned about
defense capabilities that he may have stolen from where he
worked, and does that knowledge then get into the hands of our
adversaries,” Flynn said of Snowden during a NPR interview that aired last month.

Previously, Flynn served in the US Army and participated in tours
that brought him to Grenada, Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq. US
President Barack Obama picked Flynn to be DIA director two years
ago this month, and he was expected to depart from that role in
2015.

The agency has yet to select who will succeed either Flynn or
Shedd, reported the AP.